Epson R800 - I give up

[Riki]

Was trying to print some images yesterday. I have all the possible profiles for the R800 for the paper I use viz Premium Glossy Photo Paper. I previously have tried twice to create a profile using GretagMacbeth's Eye One Photo too. These are also readily available in Photoshop for me to use.
I tried the R800 profiles first using print with preview profile and then following everything as per suggestions which I have read so many times on other forums.
Bad results, then tried the R800 profiles from the US site. Same bad results. Mind you all the time I was assign and converting the images to the profile before printing. Finally i tried each and every profile from the drop down menu incl profiles for Sony and Wide Gamut RGB and Apple RGB etc around 20 of them, finally getting some acceptable results with the Wide Gamut RGB. I knew all this didn't make any sense and I that I was definitely doing something wrong. I got fed up and copied the images and drove down to my regular printer. And guess what lousy results from him too. Worst then the ones I had got on the R800. Anyway to cut a long story short, I have three options 1) Throw the printer away and never print 2) Get guidance from someone who has a lot of patience and 3) Get profiles made professionally . Since I have gathered tonnes of printing paper and wouldn't want to just throw it away have decided on option three.
Can someone guide me where I can get a profile made professionally, not very expensive and with good technical support for it too.
Will appreciate all advice.

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[Riki]

Paul, the first problem was when I bought the printer In Poland it didnt have any profiles included. When I asked Epson Poland for it, they told me to download it from the net. I looked everywhere and there were none except on the Epson USA site. I downloaded these, but funnily these dont work with the Epson European version as confirmed to me later by Epson at Photokina. Then I started asking around and got some profiles from Epson Australia and some from Epson South Africa, these both were supposed to be compatible with the european printers. The only acceptable prints that I have ever got are whilst using the Epson Photoquicker program, never through Photoshop.
Did you get your profiles bundled with the printer ?

 

[Geof]

What program are you using to print your photo's? It sounds like you're double profiling the data before it's being printed. If you're selecting the custom print profile in Photoshop (for example) then make sure to disable all color management in the Printer Driver (when the print dialog box pops up you need to select which paper you're using and also select NO color management because Photoshop applies the custom profile before sending it to the printer).

 

[Riki]

Yes ,I am doing that. No Icm.. Printing from Photoshop.

 

[jfrancis]

Geof makes a good point. You could have Photoshop and the driver trying to profile. I used the R800 with the (supplied) profile and got superb results. Same now with the R1800. I use QImage (www.ddisoftware) to do all my printing, but on more than one occasion, I forgot to disable color management in the print driver and the results were suddenly terrible.

 

[Ken-L]

Try this link for possible answers:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi029/Epson_R800.html

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[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[Riki]

Try this link for possible answers:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi029/Epson_R800.html

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Thanks Ken for the trouble and effort. Will try out tomorrow and revert as the printer is in the office.

 

[Riki]

Thanks Paul. i knew you would get me out of this problem. I will try tomm to download the profiles, failing which which ask you to send them to me. Thanks a lot.

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[Riki]

All 7 brand new cartridges, replaced two days ago. Unworry.

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[fjp]

Geof makes a good point. You could have Photoshop and the driver trying to profile. I used the R800 with the (supplied) profile and got superb results. Same now with the R1800. I use QImage (www.ddisoftware) to do all my printing, but on more than one occasion, I forgot to disable color management in the print driver and the results were suddenly terrible.

Let me double everything you wrote. I have both the R800 and the R1800. Under CS I had absolutely no trouble with the R800 producing amazing prints right out of the gate. Then I got the R1800 and got the same jaw-dropping results, only over twice as big! Then I made the fateful step of moving up to CS2. Suddenly it looked like I was getting double-profiling. I went round and round on the dpreview forums and eventually got everything straightened out. Part of that was learning about QImage. Since getting that, I have not looked back. I never print with CS anymore. It's QImage for me 100%.

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[Cory Cooper]

XP's schtasks must be similar to a cron job in UNIX, correct?

System-level background process that can be scheduled to run once, periodically, repetitively at certain times.

Sounds like a good idea...will have to setup something similar on my Mac.

Cheers,

C

 

[Riki]

Hi Paul,

You must be wondering where I had disappeared.
I tried with cleaning the heads. Then I uninstalled all existing profiles
and reinstalled the ones you sent (incidentally I had them too ).
I then opened a file in Photoshop Cs2 with color space set to Adobe RGB
(default) and first associated a profile to this picture viz SPR800
Prem.Glossy BstPhoto.icc and then converted it to the same profile. Then I went into print with preview and in the option Color Management -> Document,
Options -> Let Photoshop determine colors. In the Epson Dialog box I
selected ICM no color handling.
The print was lousy, completely different and brownish compared to the
screen.
Then I tried once again with everything same but then I selected from
Options-> No color management.
The print was reasonably good, infact acceptable quality.
I then tried another file with the same profile and just couldnt make it
look good on the screen, I then selected Adobe RGB from the assign profiles and the screen quality improved. I assigned and converted the picture to this profile and it
printed reasonably well except it was very reddish.
I tried several other files and I was unable to use the SPR800 Prem.Glossy
BstPhoto.icc with which I was able to print the first file so well. With this profile all pictures looked terrible on screen.
Obviously there is some user error. What do you feel ?
Shall I try Qimage or any other program for printing ? Is it simpler to use, less chances of error ?

 

[Ken-L]

I don't know if this has been addressed previously:

Have you tried using new ink cartridges?

In the past I have had a printer give output that had an "overall tint" as you describe, and it turned out to be the cartridge was at fault - it was nearly empty......

 

[Riki]

All the cartrideges are new, if you read above, I had mentioned it before.